The invention relates generally to the field of audio/visual content, and more particularly searching for specific content within an audio/visual segment.
Being able to record audio/visual programming allows viewers greater flexibility in viewing, storing and distributing audio/visual programming. Viewers are able to record and view video programs through a computer, video cassette recorder, digital video disc recorder, and digital video recorder. With modern storage technology, viewers are able to store vast amounts of audio/visual programming. However, attempting to locate and view stored audio/visual programming often relies on accurate, systematic labeling of different audio/visual programs. Further, it is often time consuming to search through numerous computer files or video cassettes to find a specific audio/visual program.
Even when the correct audio/visual programming is found, viewers may want to view only a specific portion of the audio/visual programming. For example, a viewer may wish to see only highlights of a golf game such as player putting on the green instead of an entire golf tournament. Searching for specific events within a video program would be a beneficial feature.
Without an automated search mechanism, the viewer would typically fast forward through the program while carefully scanning for specific events. Manually searching for specific events within a program can be inaccurate and time consuming.
Searching the video program by image recognition and metadata are methods of identifying specific segments within a video program. However, image recognition relies on identifying a specific image to identify the specific segments of interest. Unfortunately, many scenes within the entire video program may have similarities which prevent the image recognition from identifying the specific segments of interest from the entire video program. On the other hand, the target characteristics of the specific image may be too narrow to identify any of the specific segments of interest.
Utilizing metadata to search for the specific segments of interest within the video program relies on the existence of metadata corresponding to the video program and describing specific segments of the video program. The creation of metadata describing specific segments within the video program is typically a labor-intensive task. Further, the terminology utilized in creating the metadata describing specific segments is subjective, inexact and reliant on interpretation.
The invention illustrates a system and method of searching for a specific segment within a stream of content data comprising: receiving a stream of sensory data corresponding with the stream of content data; comparing the stream of sensory data with a search criteria; identifying the specific segment of the stream of content data corresponding to a match between the stream sensory data and the search criteria; setting the search criteria based upon parameters of the stream of sensory data; and applying a threshold to determine the match between the stream of sensory data and the search criteria.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrated by way of example of the principles of the invention.